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Quotation from First Inaugural Address by James Monroe
“It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty”
First Inaugural Address, Middle of the address, on internal dangers (Project Gutenberg #4938)
Monroe names the one internal threat to self-government: a citizenry that has lost the intelligence and virtue that won the Revolution.
Citation: "It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty" — James Monroe, First Inaugural Address, Middle of the address, on internal dangers (Project Gutenberg #4938). (id monroe-first-inaugural-address-q5)
